Genki Gold

Man oh man do I love this. My blog has been so much fun to write! It has been a relief to write these things down. Even when I wrote about sad things I was always significantly happier afterwards. I posted sensitive and private things, but who knows what privacy is in 2017?? I hope that I have opened your eyes to a new perspective if I haven't accomplished the impossible task of convincing you to agree with me. I really just write to express myself and thus feel like my opinion is validated. This is not my final blog, just a reflection. I love your comments, please keep them coming.

I wasn't going to join in. I thought I was late in the game. I actually thought the world wouldn't benefit from my story. I did not want to weigh the world down with another depressing story. But when, just before Thanksgiving, there was a Twitter altercation between Olympic gymnasts, I knew I had to let this skeleton out of his closet. If you don't understand Twitter, in order to read these tweets chronologically, you have to start from the bottom: It seemed, to most people, that Gabby Douglas was insinuating that women who dress immodestly are asking to be sexually harassed. It's the classic "If you roll in the mud, you'll only attract pigs" argument. I hope that as I share my story, this phrase will die and nobody will believe it ever again. I was a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I say this honestly, so you can know the full story. In no way was the Church at fault for what happened to me. There was nothi

Every time I leave the house, I prepare myself to die. With every attack, whether it be by knife or bomb or car, I realize how close I am to death when I leave my house. Adults and children have been murdered at concerts, church services, in schools, airports, and movie theaters. There is no safe place. But there's no fun in staying home in order to be safe. So I just embrace the idea that I could fall victim to any crazy person who decides to strike on any day. I try to live every day with few regrets, lots of intact relationships, and courage in the case that this day is my last. Who knows what the source of mass killings are. Would attacks decrease if gun regulation changed? If all Muslims were banned? If there were metal detectors at every door? I don't know. This is not a political message I'm trying to share. This isn't even really a solution. This is about how I deal with a fallen world. I don't know about you, but I am underwhelmed with the quality o

"[A] s ye are   desirous   to come into the   fold   of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light; Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life—" Mosiah 18:8-9, Book of Mormon Last Sunday, Tim Ballard put on a devotional for my Stake. If you don't know who he is, he's an LDS man who used to be a politician but is now a philanthropist working with Underground Railroad. This is a non-profit organization that rescues kids that are involved in human trafficking.  The crowd that gathered under his name topped any stake conference I have ever attended. It almost made me sick because the spirit of this meeting w

Last week, at the Texas Roadhouse in Taylorsville on 5400 South, around 11:30-12:00 a firetruck and ambulance pulled up into the parking lot. It was Veteran's Day weekend, so there were a lot of elderly veterans eating there, because they were offering a free meal to all those who served. It was cool to be surrounded by them. The ambulance made me anxious. I am an aspiring journalist, but foremost a student so I spend my free time recording video and trying to sell it to other news outlets. This day, however, recording this elderly man who was likely a veteran be carried out on a stretcher without a shirt on was so jarring and sad it was difficult to continue filming. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyHfBL5DKyU Every single time my professors of BYU have given me a movie to watch as an assignment, I grow more and more grateful for them. "Five Broken Cameras" is a documentary about the conflict between Palestine and Israel. The videographer o

Do you tend to eat out or at home? Christmas Dinner at Home I recently read an article called "Of Ketchup and Kin: Dinnertime Conversations as a Major Source of Family Knowledge, Family Adjustment, and Family Resilience." It reminded me of a blog post I wrote while I was a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The article talks about how meals at home can help children develop, but my points are much more guttural. Granted, this blog post was about my companion and my relationship, but if you just replace her pronouns with those of your family, I think you'll see why you oughta stay in for meals. "Today marks day 19 of a 3 week period of eating out every single day. During this period we might have eaten two meals at home. This doesn't count breakfast, but I don't know a missionary who counts breakfast as a meal. Regardless today we're fasting and I'm feeling like I could float along on cloud nine and fast

You have to be a little messed up to like horror movies. Halloween 2011 For my dad, he saw The Evil Dead very young. I watched my first scary movie at 3-years-old (AGAINST THE VOLITION OF MY PARENTS. I had a bad babysitter. I have great parents). It was Scream, a movie that I would be perfectly happy never watching again. Your first scary movie will  always be the scariest. Yet, I brag about it to others. My first scary movie defines me as a person and I'm proud to share it. I'm proud to say I watched first slasher film as a toddler. I couldn't help it then, and I can't change it now. When I watch scary movies, I jump and flinch and shriek with the rest of them. But aftertwards, I am completely unaffected by the horrific images I have just seen.  "It's just a movie, " I would tell myself and then slip into a peaceful slumber. Then, a good friend of mine that I admire very much told me that she's bipolar and manic depressive

I do not meditate. I do not do yoga. I watch comedy shows. This relieves my stress. A well-thought out comedy sketch comes highly recommended to those stressed out students, high strung parents, and exhausted professionals. One has to be clever to be a comedian. Stephen King once wrote that writing is like telepathy. He would agree that joke writing is also telepathy. If a comedian couldn't read your mind and force the inception of an idea in your mind, they would not be funny. The whole point of being a comedian is to convince someone of something in order to induce laughter. A bad comedian tells jokes that nobody understands, and speaks on a different plane from his audience. Instead, a good comedian convinces you of something, gets you on his side so that you feel comfortable laughing with him.